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X-Men FC: Only $56 Million estimated for opening weekend.

How can a movie that meets the studios pre-release expectations be considered a flop? :confused: The studio released a statement saying they were expecting numbers similar to the first movie, and that's pretty much what they got.

If you follow movies at all you'd know how this works. A sequel/prequel that follows two bad movies always does worse. hat's why Batman Begins wasn't a smash hit. However, once you are back on track, you can start making money again - see Dark Knight.
 
After seeing First Class I went home and watched X-Men, and it holds up surprisingly well *aside* from the 17 years old line.

It explains how Mystique was able to infiltrate the Mansion so easily, how she knew how to sabotage Cerebero. It explains how Xavier and Magneto together worked on creating Cerebero and where Magneto got his psi-proof helmet. It shows the origin of the Mystique line 'we shouldn't have to be normal' and her relationship with Mags. It shows Beast working with Magneto as a young man (in X3 Beast is middle aged and works in the government as he does here and he's the only who de-powers Mags in the end). It shows how Xavier came by an SR71 Blackbird.
 
Well it was Beast who first developed the de-powering serum in First Class (didn't work but it was the ground work).
 
KB24 said:
My father made a good point tonight. He said even if there are inconsistencies with doing an after the fact prequel, First Class is still a great movie that fans of the comics will love. However, he said a lot less people will see it or give it a chance because of the crappy last two films. People pouting about Box office numbers are only going to further put people off it.
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I think the other reason a lot less people will see it is that a lot of the recognizable mutants that casuals are familiar with through pop culture or x-men cartoons, aren't in it. Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Rogue, etc etc.

The movie is clearly better than X3 or Wolverine, but to the uninitiated, it kind gives off a "B-Team" feel.
 
Mr Light said:
After seeing First Class I went home and watched X-Men, and it holds up surprisingly well *aside* from the 17 years old line.

It explains how Mystique was able to infiltrate the Mansion so easily, how she knew how to sabotage Cerebero. It explains how Xavier and Magneto together worked on creating Cerebero and where Magneto got his psi-proof helmet. It shows the origin of the Mystique line 'we shouldn't have to be normal' and her relationship with Mags. It shows Beast working with Magneto as a young man (in X3 Beast is middle aged and works in the government as he does here and he's the only who de-powers Mags in the end). It shows how Xavier came by an SR71 Blackbird.
Click to expand...

I watched both movies last night as well, I may go get the 3rd movie and XO and watch those too, and I find them both okay but also showing their age quite a bit. (And I just hate how they did Rogue.) But there's a lot of inconsistencies with this new movie while also the new movie played homage to a lot of stuff we see in these two movies or referenced them.

But X-Men also showed Xavier was not aware of the helmet that could block is telepathy and in "First Class" he encounters such a device 30 years or so before "X-Men" takes place.
 
First Class isn't a reboot it's a prequel to the first two movies which ignores elements of "The Last Stand" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". Think of First Class/X-Men/X2 as the Singer'Verse and then then Last Stand and XMO: W as outside of it. It's not a complicated process. Darren Aronofosky was planning on ignoring "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" as well when he was attached to direct "The Wolverine". Hopefully whoever replaces him decides to stick with that policy as well. It's clear that Fox still wanted to use established film continuity and allowed Singer to do what he wanted (Bryan incorporated story elements from the abandoned "X-Men Origins: Magneto" film as well in his treatment.
 
^ Fair enough. Obviously Singer and Vaughn didn't have a problem doing that. I personally don't think it's a big deal. We know that kind of thing sometimes happens when prequels come about.
 
It shouldn't happen, though. It should have been easy enough to know what the first and second movie said and made the newest one work. Most of them I think aren't a big deal, but the biggest problem was how quickly events occurred, the friendship between Magneto and Xavier should have lasted years or even decades instead in this movie it seems like it only lasted months. We should have seen Eric and Charles working together to build Cerebro, instead of prototype of it already having been built by Beast being at the CIA, and really seen their two different ideologies breaking apart and clashing and culminating to status quo as we know it in the first X-Men movie. If this was really planned as a new trilogy it would've been better served showing their friendship and eventual separation of ways spanning over the three movies.
 
I agree the last 10-15 minutes feel a tad rushed. I would have preferred that Xavier and Erik remained friends and perhaps we could have seen them continuing to work together in the second and possibly third film, where they part ways. However, what happens at the end of First Class gives the film an emotional weight that's hard to ignore, so I'm kind of torn.
 
I'm sure you guys have read my review by now, but ugh some of the character choices, like Riptide and Angel Salvadore especially were my 2 biggest gripes with the movie.
 
Indeed, the ending does have weight with Eric being responsible for Xavier becoming crippled, I really liked that. But that's something that could just as easily have happened in the second or third film after more time as them being friends was being built.

To look at this from a Star Wars prequels sort of way, little is shown in this of movie about Magneto being "good." We're shown pretty much from the beginning he's got a dark side that lurks in him so there's no surprise when it turns at the end, this his turn isn't tragic but it's expected. Much like how Anakin Skywalker was treated in the prequels, he's a douchebag ranting about wanting power and being controlled the whole time, his flip isn't a surprise because he was always presented as being on the precipice anyway.

We should have seen Xavier truly turn Erik away from his revenge desires, made him want to do "good" for mutants and then in some future movie some need for revenge pushing him completely off the edge. He should have spared Kevin Bacon's life and let him get captured/reprogrammed by Xavier/the military, claimed himself the "better man" than gone out do fight with the X-Men to stop the military. Then in a future movie he reaches a breaking point when the lengths humanity goes to in order to stop mutants finally pushes him too far and Xavier's optimism is no longer tolerable and he feels swifter action is called for and we see him, as a middle-aged man, beginning to work on his plans for the mutating device he has in the first X-Men movie.
 
I will agree with you guys that the friendship should have been longer. I think I would have had the falling out occur in the next movie but perhaps they did it this way because they didn't anticipate that there would be another one and wanted to take care of in in the first movie? Something I thought of.
 
Oh yeah I forgot, in "X-Men" Xavier doesn't know where Mags got his psi-proof helmet, that is an error.
 
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